118 Episode 26. Black Label Union (5)
Ricardo suddenly had a question.
Rockefeller was also thirsty for money.
Is he not interested in trading ships?
“I think if we do well, we can aim for the jackpot. Are you not going to invest in trading ships at all?”
Rockefeller answered the question with a small smile.
“I will not deny that trading ship investment is a great money maker here. It is a very high return on investment. But trading ships is a kind of gamble. It’s a gamble where you can get rich in an instant, but on the other hand, you can also get ripped off in an instant.”
Either the ship gets wrecked in the middle, or the captain runs away.
If you are unlucky, you could have met pirates.
Other than that, if the ship does not return with goods for various reasons, it is an investment in a trading vessel that immediately goes bankrupt.
“I mean. I want to make money with certainty rather than such ambiguous gambling.”
Rockefeller continued, as if emphasizing, raising his index finger.
“If there is a fixed profit of even 1 percent, I would like to increase it and make a profit. I don’t like things that are too risky, like investing in trade ships.”
Rockefeller had said something before, so he shared this with me.
I hope there are no misunderstandings.
“Well, if you have a good sense of humor, you can try it. For some reason this nib is quiet here.”
subsequent smiles.
Seeing that smile, Ricardo asked with slightly narrowed eyes.
“It seems you don’t like gambling more than it looks. I thought you liked gambling because you said that you would support the second prince.”
“The Second Prince is a bit of an exception. It’s also a gamble, but it’s got its own taste.”
“It’s a touch… … .”
It was a very convenient word.
Touch is an excuse.
Rockefeller said to him, who didn’t like something.
“Personally, I don’t really like gambling. Of course, there are times when gambling is necessary. If it is an unavoidable gamble, I will try to bet on my own, but if it is unavoidable, why gamble?”
“I agree with that.”
“I prefer certainty over gambling. As before, we prefer to lend to people who have come to us to borrow money, and to get a steady interest income from them.”
Pursuing a small but certain profit rather than a lump sum.
That was the money Rockefeller really wanted.
“If the loan business goes well, you will get a high profit. It’s a much more stable business than trading ship investment. Even if the interest rate on the loan is lower than the existing 6%, people who are thirsty for money like that person will flock like bees. Then we have fun there.”
The difference between loan interest and deposit interest.
And the fixed income you get from it.
It was understandable, but Ricardo questioned the sudden thought.
“still… … Wouldn’t the profit from trading ship betting be much greater than the profit from the difference in interest rates?”
As he spoke, Ricardo had this thought.
If the trade ship investment is quite worthwhile, the financial power is not bad, so, as he said, wouldn’t it be possible to aim for a high return by using diversification investment?
“Didn’t I tell you before? I think you said that if you can reduce risk through diversification, investing in trading ships would be fine.”
“you’re right. It’s kind of an assumption. And I think so.”
“Then it wouldn’t hurt to try, would it?”
Still, Rockefeller shook his head.
“There can be some certainty. But not sure. That’s what I thought, too, and I’m not really sure it will. Who can be sure of that?”
“Yes. You can’t be sure. All the ships we invested in could come back.”
one at a time.
If there was such a thing, there was definitely a possibility of what he was saying.
“Or they may not all come back.”
“Yes. If you’re lucky, all the ships you invested in might come back. But they may not all come back. This is purely by luck.”
“You really don’t like gambling.”
Rockefeller actually questioned that.
“Do you need to like it? Rather, it is a country where we can only pursue a certain money making.”
Rockefeller spoke again for a brief explanation.
“Let’s take it easy. We set the interest rate on the loan at 5% and the interest rate on the deposit at 1%. Then you get a fixed return of 4 percent that’s the difference. To make this easier, if someone deposits 100 talents, and someone borrows those 100 talents, we get a fixed income of 4 talents every month.”
“Four talents… … It’s smaller than I thought.”
Rockefeller smiled broadly at the word small.
“So we have to scale it up. Aren’t we supposed to trade with only 100 talents? For example, if we expand our business and sell with 10,000 talents, 4% of that, or 400 talents, will be confirmed as monthly income.”
Ricardo didn’t answer, and decided to listen to what Rockefeller had to say.
“If we increase the scale again, and if the deposited and loaned talents become 1 million talents, we will get a huge sum of 40,000 talents every month just by putting up the store sign.”
“Forty thousand talents… … It’s definitely big.”
“That’s right. So we need to scale it up. The bigger we are, the better.”
Rockefeller began to speak again to give another example.
“On the other hand, let’s call it trading ship investment. I don’t know very well, but I know that the investment cost per trading ship is about a few thousand talents. This also varies depending on the size of the ship, so on average it is 2,000 talents, and the investment period is one year. And let’s simply calculate the resulting jackpot profit at 400 percent excluding the cost of construction.”
Rockefeller took a moment to catch his breath due to the length of his horse, and then began to continue the rest of his words.
“Then assuming that you have invested 2,000 talents, the expected profit per month is about 666 talents. If you take into account the risk of not returning the boat, the expected return will be much lower. However, I will not deny that it is a business that can generate high profits. To be honest, there is nothing like this.”
“Only if you succeed.”
“Yes, it is. only if you succeed However, there is one stark difference between this business and the loan business I am running. Do you know what it is?”
Ricardo knew roughly what it was.
Both can produce high returns, but they are clearly different in terms of risk.
“Never perish and… … that could be ruined. What are you talking about?”
“Yes. On the other hand, if the scale is increased, the risk is relatively small, and more definite profits can be generated. On the other hand, the risk is so high that it is very difficult to expect a definite return. There is too much variation.”
Rockefeller’s question continued.
“If both could be profitable anyway, which one would you prefer?”
“It would be better to be stable.”
At that moment, Rockefeller smiled earnestly.
“That’s why I’m not interested in direct trading ships. After all, that’s a gamble, people who want to make a fortune will take care of it, and I just need to do business with them as stable as possible.”
The point was risk.
Because trade ship investment is so hot, Ricardo was once again hooked on trade ship investment, but in terms of stable income that Rockefeller emphasized, he had no choice but to support Rockefeller.
“Your heart is on your way. It seems that Prince Rockefeller is right, but I am subtly attracted to the one-room trading vessel investment.”
Rockefeller was still smiling.
“Do you like gambling?”
Ricardo did not respond to the unexpected words.
To such a Ricardo, Rockefeller began to say what he had in mind.
“Oh, of course I’m not just doing the loan business here. I’m also a guy who is obsessed with money, but I can’t just be satisfied with the loan business.”
The biggest revenue generation for banco operators was the loan business.
But when he said he wouldn’t do just that, Ricardo wondered what kind of business he was going to run.
“Are you preparing for something else?”
“Yes, but not a direct trade vessel investment.”
“Then what are you preparing for?”
“Isn’t trading ship investment quite hot here?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Then, wouldn’t it be better to proceed with the business accordingly?”
“I don’t know what kind of business it is. I can’t feel it.”
Rockefeller told me what was going on here.
“Initially, investment in trading ships is too large, so individuals do not do it alone.”
Since he knew everything, Ricardo nodded his head in agreement.
Rockefeller continued.
“In the beginning, it was said that it was unlimited liability, so it was a form of investing alone and taking on all the responsibilities. However, the risk is so great that the concept of limited liability was born. Literally, it has become a form of sharing the investment and sharing the risk.”
What kind of business is Rockefeller up to?
Ricardo began to struggle to find an answer in his words.
“But there is one problem here. You have to share the profits as much as you invest, so a way to express this is needed. This is where the securities with those rights are displayed, and the investors share them as much as they invest. When the ship comes back later, shouldn’t there be some proof that you have invested in it?”
“Yes.”
“By the way, this security is a deed of right that you have invested somewhere. When an investor withdraws an investment for personal reasons and converts it back into money, then a problem arises. I have collected just the amount of money I need, but if some of the funds are withdrawn from it, of course there will be a problem in the business, right?”
“Of course it will be a problem. The cost of building ships and the salaries to be paid to the crew are already set.”
“So these securities cannot be exchanged for money, but the Imperial Family has allowed them to be sold to other investors instead. In this way, the investment itself is preserved, so the ship can depart as scheduled, and those who need urgent money can sell their securities to others to get money.”
Rockefeller asked.
“The place where such securities trading is possible is here at Black Label. It’s also a place like that, so you can come up with a fun business that you can’t do anywhere else.”
“What kind of business are you talking about?”
“Did I not tell you? The imperial family allowed private securities trading. So where do you usually trade those securities?”
To the best of Ricardo’s knowledge, there was no official place to buy or sell securities.
Most of them pass it on to others through acquaintances.
“Is there such a thing? Wasn’t it just a person-to-person transaction?”
“Yes. It’s not there yet. If someone you know just wants to buy it, most of them sell it to that person. Or an acquaintance of an acquaintance. What was it like this?”
Rockefeller smiled subtly and continued.
“So people will think that trading securities is quite cumbersome. Even if you want to sell your securities quickly, you don’t know where the people who want to buy them are. On the other hand, those who want to buy securities must be at a loss as to where to buy them.”
Only then did Ricardo find out about the business he was envisioning.
“Are you planning to open a place where you can conveniently trade stocks?”
“You are right now. Yes, that’s right. What is not yet here is the stock exchange. Because the system itself is too weak, even though securities were created, exchanges have not yet been created. However, the more active securities trading among people becomes, the more the desire for a place where it can be easily traded will unconditionally arise.”
Ricardo didn’t deny it, he seemed to agree.
Because it was obviously going to be that way.
“If there is such a desire, wouldn’t it be reasonable for people like us to step forward and release it? And, of course, we have to take care of the small amount of fees that occur there. We are not digging the ground to do business.”
The next words were the ones that best matched Rockefeller’s way of making money.
“And it has zero risk.”